The Catholic Standard and Times

New parish named for Mother Teresa

By CHRISTE L. CHICOINE
CS&T Staff Writer

For the first time in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, a new parish will be given the name Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. The burgeoning new parish in Montgomery County will be formed July 1 from the consolidation of St. Clare Parish in Linfield and St. Peter Parish in Pottstown.

Because she is not yet a saint of the Church, the recommendation that the new parish carry Mother Teresa’s name had to receive approval from Rome.

Father Paul C. Brandt, 49, currently the president of Roman Catholic High School for Boys in Philadelphia, has been appointed by Cardinal Justin Rigali to serve as pastor.
Father Brandt said he is honored by the confidence the Cardinal has shown in him by appointing him pastor, and said he plans to focus the life of the new parish on Blessed Teresa’s example of finding Jesus in everything and performing all work joyfully.

Msgr. Arthur E. Rodgers, vicar for Montgomery County, said he hopes that when parishioners hear the name of the new parish they envision “all of those great mental pictures we have of Mother Teresa in her outreach to the poor, and her special relationship with Pope John Paul II.”

The foundress of the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa was loved and revered throughout the world when she died at the age of 87 on Sept. 5, 1997, at the Calcutta Motherhouse in India. Pope John Paul II beatified her Oct. 19, 2003.

The Missionaries of Charity have apostolates in the Philadelphia Archdiocese in Chester and Norristown.

As he takes on the responsibilities of the new parish, Father Brandt will be stepping up to yet another challenge that his vocation has afforded him since he first received the call to the priesthood.

During a Lenten penance service during his senior year at Bishop Kenrick High School in Norristown 31 years ago, Father Brandt heard his call to the priesthood. “I walked out of the chapel and thought, ‘God, thanks but no thanks.’ … This will pass when I leave the chapel.”

It didn’t.

Thirty-one Lents later, Father Brandt answered in the affirmative to the call to lead a contingent of God’s people as pastor.

Until a new church is built, Masses will continue to be celebrated in the churches at both sites, which will be known as Blessed Teresa of Calcutta in Linfield and Pottstown, respectively.

The new parish will also work toward having one educational center. Currently, St. Peter Parish has 180 students enrolled at its own school, while 67 youngsters from St. Clare Parish attend four different Catholic schools in the area.

The complex for the newly formed parish will be located on 24 acres in the area of Swamp Pike and Neiffer Road in Limerick, with boundaries that encompass the territory of both parishes.

Membership in both St. Clare and St. Peter parishes has been growing rapidly over the past 10 years — a reality that “is going to give energy and vitality to the parish,” Father Brandt said.

St. Peter Parish, founded in 1924, has 2,093 registered parishioners — an increase of 561 from 10 years ago. St. Clare Parish, founded in 1963, has 3,117 parishioners — an increase of 1,624 from 10 years ago.

According to municipal projections, there will be approximately 10,000 Catholic parishioners in the area of Lower Pottsgrove and New Hanover Township by 2030.

Father Brandt said he has lived 46 of his 49 years in Montgomery County. He is also currently a priest in residence at St. Philip Neri Parish in Lafayette Hill.

“The advantage to that is [that] just as that growth has moved up the 422 corridor, there are a lot of people [in the area] I have known from grade school and high school [and from working at Genuardi’s Supermarkets for 10 years],” he said.

He is the second of five children of Joseph and Lee Brandt, and an uncle of nine. [His older brother Joseph, ordained a priest in 1983, is pastor of St. Anne Parish in Philadelphia].

Raised in Visitation B.V.M. Parish in Trooper, Father Brandt graduated from Visitation B.V.M. School in 1971 and Bishop Kenrick High School in 1975. After Kenrick, he enrolled at Penn State University’s Ogontz campus, where he majored in engineering.

In the fall of 1976, he entered St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood. He left St. Charles three years later and began teaching at St. Paul School in Norristown, but his calling to the priesthood prevailed. He re-entered St. Charles Seminary in 1980, and was ordained May 19, 1984, by Cardinal John Krol at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia.

Father Brandt has at least a few things in common with Blessed Teresa.

“She spent 19 years of her life with the Sisters of Loreto in preparation to founding the Missionaries of Charity,” he said. “I’ve spent 19 years [ministering in high schools.] I think the people of my parish will benefit greatly by what young people in high schools have taught me for 19 years.”

Of those years in education ministry, 15 have been spent at Roman Catholic High. Since 1997, Father Brandt has served as Roman’s president, and from 1987 to 1993, he served as a faculty member and school minister there.

He was also president of Kennedy-Kenrick High School in Norristown from 1993 to 1994. And from 1994 to 1997, he was school minister at Bishop McDevitt High School in Wyncote.

Being accessible to students has been a priority for Father Brandt from the get-go, he said: “Every day, I stand outside my office at one of the major intersections of the school at the change of classes” to interact with the students.

It is his hope that the young men he has served at Roman know “that the Church cares for them individually” and is always available to them, he added.

Father Brandt plans to bring that same assurance to his parishioners at Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

In his new role, he envisions numerous opportunities for the youth and the seniors of the community to interact. Family ministry and prison ministry are other outreach opportunities that will be critical to his parish, Father Brandt said.

The challenge of building a new church for his flock is one that he welcomes. In fact, he considers such a construction project — with all its details — as another gift with which God has blessed him.

At Roman Catholic, Father Brandt oversaw multi-million-dollar renovation projects, including an addition to the school in 1998, and renovations on a building that is slated to open this fall. He has also been known to take hammer in hand and help with the work, himself.

Still, he said, “Nothing can be built in bricks and mortar until a community is built. Once you have a community, [getting] the bricks and mortar is easy.”

Father Brandt believes Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Parish will be an anchor for his parish’s future. From what he has already learned of the community’s members, and their request for the new parish, he said, “It seems to me that there is genuine dedication on the part of the people — that they want the Catholic Church to flourish in this area, and they want to be part of it.”

Father Brandt already knows two of his future parishioners — members of St. Clare Parish — very well: his parents.

He gently jokes: “I hope they like the job of their new pastor.”

CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine can be reached at (215) 587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.